The Ann Arbor Public School board has failed to approve a proposal from Professional Contract Management, Inc (PCMI) to provide outsourced noon hour supervision for the district. The decision came at the board’s Oct. 10, 2012 meeting. PCMI’s proposal, made in response to an Aug. 8, 2012 RFP, was the only one received by the district. The board was split on the benefits of the cost savings and the non-competitiveness of the bid.

PCMI’s original bid was to charge the district 25.83% of the gross wages to be paid to the supervisors themselves. After negotiation, the bid was reduced by one percentage point to 24.83%. According to the staff memo accompanying the briefing item, that’s roughly 7% higher than bids the district has seen for similar services in the past. AAPS has used PCMI for substitutes and coaches in the past.

Compared to current costs, which depend on hiring AAPS employees to supervise noon hours, the PCMI proposal offered savings of $61,000.

This brief was filed from the board room of the Ann Arbor District Library in downtown Ann Arbor at Fifth and William. A more detailed report of the meeting will follow: [link]

MICATS (Michigan Coalition Against Tar Sands) is reporting that two of its protesters have been arrested for locking their necks with bicycle U-locks to pipeline construction trucks being used for the Enbridge Line 6B pipeline expansion. [Source]

In a roundup of the lineup for the Aug. 5, 2014 primary elections, we overstated by one year Ward 5 councilmember Chuck Warpehoski’s length of service as a council representative on the city’s environmental commission. He served in that capacity during his first year on the council. We note the error here and have corrected the original article.